They’ve been strangely silent since last year’s contest ended, but now the long wait is finally over. Yesterday marked the official launch of the 2010 Gap Casting Call. The initial entry phase of this year’s contest runs from September 28 through October 24 (last year it was a full 30 days) and for the first time, Gap is also offering folks the option to enter via their new iPhone app (which I haven’t actually tried yet). Thankfully, this year’s contest does not appear to have a partnership with Disney (which was more or less a disaster last year in my opinion and those of many who commented here). Even though Disney is gone, my hopes of things running smoothly right out of the gate were more or less dashed after I visited the non-functioning casting call website half a dozen times today.
To enter your child model of the future (babies, ages 4 and under; kids, ages five to 10) in this year’s contest, download the iPhone app or visit gap.com/castingcall and upload a photo. Here’s the timeline for year’s Gap Casting Call:
Entry Phase: Today through Oct. 24, parents across the country can upload photos of their kid(s) ten and under wearing their favorite pair of jeans at gap.com/castingcall or via the new iPhone app.
The Finalists: Judges will select 20 finalists — 10 for babyGap and 10 for GapKids – who will participate in a Gap photo shoot in San Francisco and get a $500 Gap GiftCard.
Voting Phase: Twenty finalists will be revealed on Dec. 6 and it will be up to America to vote for the winners at gap.com/castingcall or via the iPhone app. Voters can cast their votes once a day everyday for a boy and girl for babyGap and a boy and girl for GapKids.
The Winners: In February 2011, the four winners will be revealed in Gap store windows nationwide. They will also receive a $1,000 Gap GiftCard.
Gap is also bringing back the popular Fan Favorite and Voter Sweepstakes Awards. The child who receives the most votes from Sept. 27, through Nov. 14, will win a $1,000 Gap GiftCard. Voters will also be entered to win a $1,000 Gap GiftCard every time they cast a vote.
Read the full 2010 Gap Casting Call press release after the jump.
SHOW OFF YOUR GOOD JEANS: GAP SEARCHES FOR THE NEW FACES OF BABYGAP AND GAPKIDS WITH ITS FIFTH ANNUAL CASTING CALL CONTEST
Gap’s Nationwide Search to Find America’s Brightest Personalities is Now Available via the Gap Casting Call iPhone App
SAN FRANCISCO, September 28, 2010 – Gap’s coast-to-coast search for radiant, charismatic babies (ages four and under) and kids (ages five to 10) has officially started today with its fifth annual Casting Call contest.
This year, Gap wants to see contestants show off their “good jeans” and is asking parents to submit photos of their precious tots sporting their favorite pair of jeans. Four lucky winners, a boy and girl for babyGap and a boy and girl for GapKids, will be featured in a nationwide Gap campaign early next year. Contestants also have a chance to win the highly coveted America’s Fan Favorite award.
“Denim is such an integral part of American fashion and culture, and it’s also the heart and soul of Gap,” said Mark Breitbard, executive vice president of babyGap and GapKids. “Your favorite pair of jeans says a lot about your personality, so we’re asking contestants to show off their individual style by posing in their favorite jeans for their submission photo. Our Casting Call contest is all about finding the brightest personalities with ‘good jeans’ and a sweet smile to match.”
Gap is making it even easier for parents to enter their children into the contest with the introduction of its Gap Casting Call iPhone app. The app, which will be available this week, allows moms and dads to enter their children into the contest, plus cast their vote, while they’re on the move. Parents can download the free app at gap.com/castingcall, or by visiting Apple’s App Store.
How Casting Call Works:
Entry Phase: From Sept. 27 to Oct. 24, parents across the country can upload up to five photos of their baby(ies) (ages four and under) or kid(s) (ages five to 10) either online at gap.com/castingcall or through the Gap Casting Call iPhone app.The Finalists: After the entry phase closes on Oct. 24, judges will narrow down the field to 20 finalists — 10 babies (five girls and five boys) for babyGap and 10 kids (five girls and five boys) for GapKids. The 20 finalists will be flown to San Francisco with their families to participate in an official Gap photo shoot and will receive prize packages, including a $500 Gap GiftCard.
Voting Phase: On Dec. 6, the 20 finalists will be unveiled and voting will begin on gap.com/castingcall. It will then be up to America to decide the next faces of babyGap and GapKids for the 2011 campaign. Voters can vote once a day every day for babyGap [one boy and one girl] and GapKids [one boy and one girl] online at gap.com/castingcall or via the iPhone app. And contestants won’t be the only ones with a chance to win great prizes [see more about the Fan Favorite and Voter’s Sweepstakes awards below].
The Winners: Four children will be selected as winners of the Gap Casting Call — a girl and boy for babyGap and a girl and boy for GapKids. The winners will be featured in the windows of babyGap and GapKids stores from coast-to-coast and will receive a $1,000 Gap GiftCard. Winners will be unveiled in February 2011.
The Fan Favorite Award:
Due to the overwhelming popularity of last year’s America’s Fan Favorite award, Gap is once again offering one lucky child a $1,000 Gap GiftCard for receiving the most votes at gap.com/castingcall. Fan Favorite voting runs from Sept. 27 through Nov. 14 and the winner will be announced on Dec. 6, along with the 20 finalists. To help get the word out, parents can leverage the power of Facebook, Twitter and e-mail to help get votes for their little one.Voter Sweepstakes:
Also back by popular denim, Gap is offering a special Voter Sweepstakes prize for the second year in a row. For each vote cast at gap.com/castingcall from Dec. 6 – Dec. 20, voters will be entered in a contest to win a $1,000 Gap GiftCard. The winner will be revealed in January 2011.Visit gap.com/castingcall for official contest and sweepstakes rules and information.
Thie site is pretty bad right now can’t get on it to vote, Maybe in a few days it will work better 🙂
@Sherron It’s better today than it was yesterday. You might want to try the app though, if you have an iPhone.
ok thanks Bumpershine!
I want to know why the site rarely works and how so many kids have obscene amounts of votes when it just started a little over a week ago. I put my daughter in like last week and she has 20 some votes yet I see some kids with 5,000+ votes. How is this possible? You cannot re-vote yourself that many times because the site logs people by their IP address. I know this because my husband wanted to vote but since I already had he could not. I know people but how does someone know 5,000 people who vote? lol Sounds a little strange to me.
Also, I’ve had some family members complain that when they click on the entry link to my daughters voting page it rarely loads and works, so how fair is that?
I agree, I just entered my daughter and some kids have an obscene amount of votes already! Brings back memories from last year!!
I have tried to get in for days to vote and I am the only one for my son also who can vote for him, last year it was the samething were the kids had high votes. Most of the parents emailed them to complain about it. I’m not sure how they took care of it but it was done. Lets hope this is taken care of it’s not fare for us who want our friends and family to vote for our kids.
It is very irritating that people have 21000 votes 10 days into this thing. I’ve entered all three of my kids and gave up on this being fun when I noticed people were cheating. You can google how they are doing it if you want to know or join them. Not to mention, what they are doing is causing the site to be slow for everyone else who is trying to vote legitimately. I entered my son 3 times and my third time, I put his name has NoCheatingVotes. I kind of wish Gap would step up and do something about this…although, I’m not sure they did anything about it last year.
http://cheatingnetwork.net/forums/introduce-yourself/73404-need-help-voting-site-poll-killer-make-my-poll-go-up.html
I hate stuff like this! Cheaters always win : ( At least this one was not very smart about it.
@SallyAndrews I notified my Gap contacts about the cheating link.
Thank you bumpershine for trying to do something about this it’s so unfair!
Does anybody know why the site won’t let you load pics? I’ve tried on several computers and it says that the fields (address, phone, etc.) are required to be filled in, even though I have them completely filled out. It just gets worse to enter this contest as the years go on!
I was wondering if my computer or my network got a problem, now I’m relieved.
The website is clearly not working properly. I finally ended up loading 3 pictures of my child and now I don’t have any remaining (in the official, it’s supposed to be 5, right ?)
Shouldn’t be more efficient and fair to have a period of time to enter the pictures and then a period of time afterwards to vote (and actually allowed one vote per person and of course not for your kid ?)
As I finally realize that the contest was just a way to make survey and to get personal sellable info, I can not access the website anymore to delete my child pictures.
The contest is a good idea but will not make a good ad for Gap.
Has anyone been locked out?I tried to vote and it says I have already voted when I logged in.
Have the finalists been notified yet? I can’t believe that they would actually look through over 1 Million photos.
Do you think they’ll automatically disqualify photos that don’t have denim in them?
I’ve noted that they’ve already removed some entries/photos … probably for attempted cheating (voting via multiple emails).
I think they should have removed all entries without denim. Shows that those parents were not paying attention to that part of the contest. Therefor they are not eligable. I would be very shocked if kids were chosen who were not wearing denim. I had tons of amazing shots of my son and then I found out about the denim thing and that really narrowed my selection. I could have put up a better shot without denim but I chose to follow that part of the entry rules :o)
I think they should remove entries without denim as well.
What’s very interesting is that we might never know since they won’t show you the 20 finalists until the photo shoot has been done…thus, the finalists will be shown in the outfits that Gap has selected for them, so we won’t actually get to see their entry photos to see whether or not they had denim on. 🙁
So.. has anyone heard anything? It seems so quiet this year!!
No, I haven’t heard anything either. Do you think all 20 have been notified already?
Looks like they contacted the finalists yesterday. I searched facebook and found two of them. Dang! I guess there is always next year!
Thanks for the info. yes……always next year!
Oooh were they wearing jeans?
Yup, they must have contacted all the finalists by now since the photo shoot is in a little over a week…they have to allow time for people to make arrangements and fly out. Best of luck to the finalists!